Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 227 pages of information about Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific.

Nothing further remarkable occurred to us till the
22d, when we passed the line in longitude 25 deg.
9”. According to an ancient custom the crew
baptized those of their number who had never before
crossed the equator; it was a holyday for them on
board. About two o’clock in the afternoon
we perceived a sail in the S.S.W. We were not
a little alarmed, believing that it was the same brig
which we had seen some days before; for it was lying
to, as if awaiting our approach. We soon drew
near, and to our great joy discovered that she was
a Portuguese; we hailed her, and learned that she
came from some part of South America, and was bound
to Pernambuco, on the coasts of Brazil. Very soon
after we began to see what navigators call the Clouds
of Magellan: they are three little white
spots that one perceives in the sky almost as soon
as one passes the equator: they were situated
in the S.S.W.

The 1st November, we began to see great numbers of
aquatic birds. Toward three o’clock P.M.,
we discovered a sail on our larboard, but did not
approach sufficiently near to speak her. The 3d,
we saw two more sails, making to the S.E. We
passed the tropic of Capricorn on the 4th, with a
fine breeze, and in longitude 33 deg. 27”.
We lost the trade-winds, and as we advanced south
the weather became cold and rainy. The 11th, we
had a calm, although the swell was heavy. We
saw several turtles, and the captain having sent out
the small boat, we captured two of them. During
the night of the 11th and 12th, the wind changed to
the N.E., and raised a terrible tempest, in which
the gale, the rain, the lightning, and thunder, seemed
to have sworn our destruction; the sea appeared all
a-fire, while our little vessel was the sport of winds
and waves. We kept the hatches closed, which
did not prevent us from passing very uncomfortable
nights while the storm lasted; for the great heats
that we had experienced between the tropics, had so
opened the seams of the deck that every time the waves
passed over, the water rushed down in quantities upon
our hammocks. The 14th, the wind shifted to the
S.S.W., which compelled us to beat to windward.
During the night we were struck by a tremendous sea;
the helm was seized beyond control, and the man at
the wheel was thrown from one side of the ship to the
other, breaking two of his ribs, which confined him
to his berth for a week.

In latitude 35 deg. 19”, longitude 40 deg.,
the sea appeared to be covered with marine plants,
and the change that we observed in the color of the
water, as well as the immense number of gulls and other
aquatic birds that we saw, proved to us that we were
not far from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata.
The wind continued to blow furiously till the 21st,
when it subsided a little, and the weather cleared
up. On the 25th, being in the 46th degree, and
30 minutes of latitude, we saw a penguin.